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."No," Atticus said."I know exactly how lucky I am."***"If Ping is dead," Ukiah said once he and Ru returned to thetable, "we're back to square one in finding the Ae.""What about this word that Ping wrote onto the wall?" Ruasked.Ukiah shrugged."I think it's zaeta, which roughly means'transmitter,' but that wouldn't make sense.She must have gotten theword wrong.""Why?" Atticus asked.aaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr r"The zaeta works on a quantum level to achieve instantcommunication between star systems.It was developed by a race thathad achieved three colonies in nearby star systems.""Cool." Kyle's pout slipped away in the face of far-flung aliencivilizations."Why doesn't 'transmitter' make sense? E.T.phonehome." This got a blank look from Ukiah."They're sending messagesback to the home world."Ukiah shook his head."No.You don't understand theOntongard.""Pretend we know nothing," Atticus said."That shouldn't bemuch of a stretch.""The Ontongard can't stay on one planet," Ukiah said."Eventually they wipe out the ecology by becoming the ecology, andcannibalism follows.So they gear all the planet's industries towardbuilding seed ships.They build thousands, until the planet'sresources are depleted, and then they leave, each ship traveling on adifferent vector.It's completely blind.One ship might travel one lightyear to the next star system, and the next ship could travelthousands.""So the transmitters are used to keep the scattered coloniesconnected," Kyle guessed."No." Ukiah shook his head."There is no home world.There isno plan.This isn't an effort to build a civilization to span the universe.The Ontongard is just one organism, reproducing mindlessly.AfteraaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr rthey find a suitable planet, they pull their ship into orbit anddismantle it, parachuting everything down to the surface in an all-or-nothing try to take over.If they succeed, they reproduce until theywipe out all life on that planet and then leave.If they fail, who cares?""The ones that die." Atticus felt the need to poke holes inUkiah's theory.He found his brother's knowledge annoying in theface of his own ignorance."It might be a long shot, but the ones hereon Earth might be desperate enough to take it.Why not send out amessage saying there's a perfect planet here, waiting to be plundered,if another ship was so inclined to head in this direction?"Ukiah gave him a lost look, uncertain."These translations the cult had you do." Ru gave Ukiah a nudgelike he would if they were questioning a witness."They nevermentioned the transmitter?"Ukiah closed his eyes and sat still for a minute.Atticus sensedthat he was flicking back over hours of spoken conversation."A lot ofthe same equipment goes to building a lot of things: computercontrols, monitors, switches, gauges.They could be buildinganything but they are all things found in a transmitter.TheOntongard would have needed years to bring everything together, andI listened only to a few months of recordings.""They're still building it, or they wouldn't be talking aboutparts," Kyle guessed."Any indication how close to finished they are?"Ukiah made a face."It could be done now and still be useless."aaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr r"Huh?""Well, these things are more like cell phones than radios, if Iunderstand human technology right.The transmitter isn't like a radiotower, where it broadcasts out and anyone out there with a radio canpick it up.It's like a cell phone, where there's two-waycommunication set up.There's what Max calls 'the handshake' goingon signals that go from sender to receiver and back.""What's the protocol?" Kyle got a blank look."How do theyinitiate a message?""They would have to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]